brothers
by Kori Kuri
Summary: When his father arrived with the two of them, Kaito didn't see any harm in Ryoga and Yuma, even when Chris left there was nothing wrong with them, but things tend to happen closely after each other and the mess he finds himself in the end is worse than everything he expected. [AU where Shark and Yuma were adopted by Dr. Faker some time before the plot happened]
1. Chapter 1

Fill for the ficathon prompt "AU where everything is the same except Shark and Yuuma were adopted by Dr. Faker some time before the plot happened". Enjoy the first part!

* * *

_brothers_

* * *

Kaito's surprised when his father arrives with the two boys.

Haruto just fell asleep and Kaito, already in his pyjama, lays next to him, wondering if it's worth it to get up, brush his teeth and go to his bed or if he should just stay there with Haruto. He's about to dose of when he hears someone entering the room. Assuming that it's just Chris checking on Haruto again, he sits up slowly, looking around in the dim light, trying to spot Chris' silhouette. When the lights are turned on, it's not Chris smiling at him and telling him he should go and sleep in his own bed, but Dr. Faker, who holds two boys in each hand and looks surprised to see him there. He hesitates, not sure what he's supposed to do.

"Kaito?"

"What?", he says getting up and crossing his arms. There are probably better ways to greet your father after you haven't properly talked to him for ages, but Kaito doesn't really care, because_ what_ perfectly summarizes everything he wants to say right now. What do you want, what are these kids doing here, what were you thinking when you left us alone for such a long time?

Faker apparently decides to answer the second question, introducing him to the boys, Ryoga and Yuma. They are orphans and Faker decided to adopt them. Kaito lets him talk, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. When he's finished, Kaito just raises an eyebrow, trying not to show that he had no idea how to react properly.

After Faker left without really saying anything else, Kaito looks at the boys. He doesn't want to trust them, the whole thing seems pretty suspicious, but then he realizes that they're just children and shrugs. They're still kids, probably about eleven or twelve years old and he doesn't want to scare them. There's a enough space in the tower for all of them, the two of them could just take one of the spare rooms.

* * *

He gets to know Yuma and Ryoga better over the next few weeks and months. Since he can't always be there to look after Haruto, he eventually has to leave the three of them alone rather often. Haruto loves playing with them, and Yuma seems to love Haruto, too. He's a really cheerful boy and almost never stops talking. Ryoga is pretty well-behaved but rather calm and kind of shy. He's a very skilled duellist as well and Kaito notices that he tends to get embarrassed pretty easily, especially when Yuma's around. Soon Ryoga and Yuma start to teach Haruto duelling, while Kaito watches them play sometimes, happy to see Haruto finally found some friends.

Chris says that Yuma's father was involved in some of Fakers' research and Ryoga's family was well-known for their influence and money. Kaito should keep an eye on them, because there had to be a reason why Faker adopted them. Chris knows evrything about his relationship to his father and about Haruto's illness. He also knew about the Numbers, that's why he and Kaito keep training each evening, although most days Kaito is already exhausted from Heartland's training. Kaito doesn't understand what he means, why should he keep an eye of them, it's not like they could be a threat for Haruto, but Chris just shakes his head, hands now resting on his shoulders.

"What if they keep getting better at duelling? Dr. Faker might want them to become Numbers Hunters as well."

Kaito takes a step back, only to look into Chris' eyes properly, without shoving his hands away.  
"If they're supposed to be my brothers, I'll make sure to protect them as well."

Chris just sighs, shaking his head again. He bends down a little, hesitates for a second before pressing his lips to Kaito's cheek. Then he moves a little closer to his ears as if he wants to whisper something in Kaito's ear, but then he pulls away again, muttering a short "whatever", turns away and leaves. Assuming that Chris is probably just tiered, he lets him go without asking any more questions. It's not necesarry to ask right now because Kaito still needs to figure out what the whole situation meant to him anyway. He'll just talk to him tomorrow, since he's sure that Chris will definitely show up for their training tomorrow.

He doesn't.

* * *

Yuma and Ryoga got better and better at duelling, well at least Ryoga. Yuma was way too stubborn, not willing to work on his deck or learn something about tactic, barely being able to pronounce the word, but it made Haruto laugh and that was all that mattered. It were these little things that made Kaito forget his pain these days, not that he had enough time to feel bad about himself ever since Chris left and he had started to collect Numbers. So whenever Yuma exclaims that he'll become the World Duel Champion after losing against Haruto again, Kaito doesn't care to bite back the smile.

Ryoga who keeps getting better even participated in tournaments and makes it to the nationals. They're in the duellist waiting room, wishing him good luck shortly before the start of the duel, when the door opens and a girl storms inside, hugging Ryoga tightly.

"Ryoga!"

Kaito is just about to get her away from him, thinking she's just a weird fan, when Haruto tugs his sleeve, gesturing him to look at the two. To his surprise, Ryoga's actually hugging the girl back and stroking her hair awkwardly.

"Rio... how did you here?" He gently shoves her away a little, hands resting on her shoulders, looking at her properly. She pouts.

"Gosh, Ryoga, you're still such an idiot. I'm here to watch the duel. Shortly after you got adopted, Michael's oldest brother returned and took him and Thomas home and they adopted me as well. Your opponent, IV, he's actually Thomas!" She smiles at him and he remembers the older blond and red-haired boy and his much friendlier younger brother. They used to be at the same orphanage as the twins. One time, Rio and Michael suddenly went missing and he was convinced that had Michael kidnapped her so he challenged Michael's brother, Thomas, to a duel – and lost, much to Thomas amusement. Not much later both of them returned save and sound, giving Thomas another reason to make fun of Ryoga.

He pulls her into a hug again, burying his face in her shoulder, hearing Yuma mutter something about why he never told them about this girl.

"I'm so sorry, Rio, and I really missed you." He never wanted to get adopted without Rio, they swore to always stay together, but Faker insisted on taking him, only him, and when adults wanted something, they always got it, no matter how much he fought and tried to convince him to at least take Rio as well. It's a miracle for him to get to hold her in his arms again and he feels his eyes getting wet, much to his annoyance. He's definitely not going to cry in front of Kaito and the others. Rio seems to notice and just chuckles.

"No need to cry, I'll never leave my idiot brother alone again."

She breakes their hug, takes his right hand and pulls a ring from her finger, then pulls it over his little finger, so now there are two rings on his right hand. "See, a part of me is always with you, now make sure to win this duel."

He almost forgot about the duel, but then the door is opened again and IV and two other boys come in. It took Ryoga some time to realize that one of them is Michael. He doesn't recognize the last man, who had long bluish hair, but he figures that it has to be their oldest brother.

"Rio, hurry up, the duel is starting."

Rio gives Ryoga an other smile, wishes him good luck and then walks over to Michael, who smiles at her in an honest way. Ryoga looks at both of them for a while before looking at Kaito, who, though usually calm and collected, is actually staring at IV's older brother in obvious disbelieve, mouth wide open. Haruto and Yuma are talking about something again just like Rio and Michael. None of them see IV stepping uncomfortably close next to Ryoga, whispering something into his ears. Ryoga's eyes widen and he clenches his fists, but IV smirks, saying he should keep their little secret, to spare the others from worrying. Then IV walks over to Rio and his brothers again, putting a hand on her shoulder, telling them they should hurry up because the duel is just about to start. Yuma nods, saying they should probably get to their seats as well and telling Ryoga that he should better win this duel.

He doesn't.

* * *

Being just thirteen and fourteen now, Yuma and Ryoga have to go to school. Yuma often likes to complain about the fact that they had to go while Haruto, who was old enough to go to school as well, doesn't. Haruto often complains about staying at home when the others are at school.

Yuma once came home from school and told them he got a new class mate today, no one less than Michael Arclight. Kaito wasn't sure how to react, knowing that if Michael was in town, Chris had to be somewhere, too, but he tries not to care about it too much. He already has enough things to deal with.

Yuma and Michael eventually become friends, but Michael tells Yuma to keep it secret. He knows it's better for them, if his family doesn't find out about their relationship, so they don't tell anyone. After school, they meet at ordinary public places, places full of other people, where no one would notice or care about two boys quietly whispering to each other, sometimes about normal things like school or duelling, sometimes about things kids their age shouldn't worry about, things like war and dying. Michael's father is dead, just like Yuma's entire family, but Yuma is convinced that people never really die and fade away, there's always a part of them left in the people who remember them, so his family is not really dead as long as he remembers them. Michael tells him how his father died and came back as a young boy, although he knows he shouldn't talk about it; not to Yuma and not at such crowded place where there could be people overhearing their conversation, but he does anyway.

One time, Yuma duels Michael, a spirit comes out of Yuma's pendant: Astral, messenger of the Astral world.

Michael doesn't come to school again after that.

* * *

Ryoga never talks much about school, in fact he barely talks at all since the nationals. If he didn't see the small smiles and touches he and Yuma shared, Kaito would probably worry about Ryoga. There was nothing serious between them, just sometimes their hands would brush against each others or Ryoga would sometimes roll his eyes at Yuma and call him an idiot and then smile when he thought no one saw it. Seeing the two of them being so close, he can't help but think about Chris.

When winter comes and it gets cold outside again, he would sometimes come home to find Haruto already asleep and the two of them on the couch under a blanket, watching TV. When they notice him, Yuma would just tell him to join them already. At first, he finds the thought ridiculous but eventually he gives in, so in the end it's the three of them, huddling under the blanket and Kaito has to admit that it does feel kind of nice. When it's just the three of them, it's easy to forget everything else, and sometimes Haruto would wake up and join them as well and Ryoga would complain that the couch isn't made for four people and Yuma would just call him boring, although all of them know that Ryoga doesn't mean it, never really means it, because he wants all of them around him, too.

They're brothers after all.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks to everyone who's following this story, left a review etc., I really appreciate it. Here comes part two!

* * *

_breaking apart_

* * *

Time flies and things change but everything stays the same for them – except for Yuma. The spirit, Astral, keeps appearing and disappearing around him and he still needs to find out why.

Since his duel with III, Astral only appears when Yuma's walking home after school or watching TV in his room, and as soon as someone else enters the room, Astral would always vanish within seconds. Sometimes he could just think about Astral to make him appear in front of him, almost like summoning a monster on these old solid vision duel disks.

It's getting hard to believe Astral actually existed. Yuma already told Ryoga and Kotori, one of his classmates, about Astral but whenever he tries to show them, Astral would just vanish or not show up at all, much to Yuma's annoyance.

The sun's setting. Yuma, who has spent his whole day duelling his friends and has even been close to beating Tetsuo once, stands in front of the school, chatting with everyone before they all have to go home. Yuma knows that he should probably hurry home soon, because he has been late yesterday and the day before but being home is kind of boring lately. Haruto's illness got worse, he's asleep most of the time and nobody except Kaito is allowed to check on him.

Yuma doesn't see Kaito a lot these days, he gets up before Yuma's awake to start working and comes home in the middle of the night and when he is at home he spends every single second at Haruto's bed.

Ryoga's similar, when they're getting ready for school in the morning, Ryoga usually gets up before Yuma and while he used to wake Yuma up and wait for him so they can walk to school together, he now always leaves before Yuma's even awake, which results in Yuma being late for school almost every day. If they actually meet each other on the hallways, Ryoga's hanging out with some weirs guys and never seems to recognize Yuma when he tries to talk to Ryoga, doesn't even respond to Yuma's short greetings.

Rumours about Ryoga start spreading, rumours Yuma doesn't want to believe, terrible rumours Yuma wants to tell Ryoga about, so he can confirm that they are far away from the truth and both of them can laugh about how silly and stupid these rumours were and make fun of them. But after school, he never sees Ryoga, which doesn't matter at first, his class probably ended earlier, but then he gets home and Ryoga's not there, too, and when Ryoga finally gets home, it's already late. He tries to talk to him and ask where he has been, but Ryoga only mumbles something like _I'm hungry, Yuma, leave me alone,_ turns around and doesn't even walk into the kitchen to get some food but into his room which he doesn't leave after that, always avoiding to talk to Yuma or answer his simple questions.

It's getting harder and harder to not believe these rumours.

* * *

It's still winter and their school break just started, when Droite has the idea that they might need a real break and suggests that they could visit Kaito and Haruto's old house, which was rather far away from the city.

"The air outside the city is really healthy and might help Haruto to get better." It almost takes a week of Droite pointing out all the advantages of going there until Kaito agrees, and if it's anyone but Droite one might think she just wants to get rid of them for some time, but knowing Droite for long enough now, Ryoga knows she just wants to make sure that Kaito finally took a break from constantly collecting Numbers, and although he does not say it, he's happy about leaving the city as well. Staying somewhere else to forget about all his responsibilities and problems just for once sounds comforting, but he knows that you can't run away from them and that it'll get even worse once he gets back, but he feels tiered and worn out and really wants nothing but a short break.

So it's not that he doesn't enjoy living in the highest tower of Heartland, the view's really amazing, but whenever he sees the amusement park, he looks at his rings and has to think about Rio, think about the last time they met and wonder why IV's family adopted her, where she's living now and when he's going to see her again and if she even _wants _to see him again – seriously, why would she want to see a loser like him again?

Anyway, when he and Yuma arrive and get to see the house, they're amazed. The term mansion describes the big wooden house in the middle of the green meadow full of red and yellow and white flower better. It does remind Ryoga a bit of his own home when his parents were still around, though their house was at the centre of the city and their cute little garden can't be compared with that beautiful meadow. Even the air felt lighter here and reminded him of his childhood.

It's warm here.

Haruto, who is actually awake and seems to be fine for the first time since long, wants to share a room with Yuma, who happily agrees, and Ryoga can't help but feel a little disappointed but tries not to show it. After having shoved away and ignored Yuma all this time it's no surprise that Yuma doesn't want to share a room with him. He still hopes Kaito could convince Haruto to take a room with him instead, but Haruto insists on sharing one with Yuma, since Kaito's room would be right next to them and it's not such a big deal anyway and _come on, ni-san, stop being so boring_, so in the end, Haruto naturally gets what he wants.

The rooms are on the first floor, one left to the stairs, the other on the right. Kaito almost lets the bag he's carrying fall down when he sees the doors again, because they look exactly how they used to when he was younger and everything used to be alright. His parents slept in the right room, while the left one was his. After Haruto was born, he stayed in his parents room and Kaito and his mother would always look after Haruto while their father was at work. Haruto eventually moved to Kaito's room as he grew up.

(Kaito doesn't forget about his duties as Numbers Hunter and knows it's wrong to take some days off because there's still a lot of work to do, there always is, but being with the three boys somehow makes him worry less. If he's fighting for Haruto's sake why not spend some time with him and at this point, even Ryoga and Yuma have become important enough to him that he doesn't mind their presence at all.

He should just trust Orbital 7 to take care of everything.)

Ryoga's showering when Kaito enters their room. He actually only wanted to check his phone to make sure he hasn't missed any important calls when he sees that Ryoga hasn't started to put his things away yet and just left an opened on his bed. Normally, Kaito doesn't really care about other people's business, but he can't help but notice the small blue note-book that has been carefully placed on the nightstand, unlike the rest of Ryoga's stuff.

So, yeah, he decides to take a look at the note-book, and the word _diary_ has been carefully written on its cover in Ryoga's clean handwriting. And it's kind of cute, he'd guess, for someone like Ryoga of all people to write a diary. He figures that it's probably a way to deal with his parents' death and so on. While Kaito knows the basic facts about Ryoga's and Yuma's past, he has never considered that it's probably still hard for them to deal with being orphans and getting adopted by complete strangers. Maybe he should talk to them about that, but he kind of never really thought about _their_ past, he has mostly been worried about other things, Haruto or Chris or, though he hated to admit it, himself.

His own selfishness made him forget about Ryoga, although he has promised to take care of the two of them. He promised Chris to protect them like they were his own brothers, but pretty much left them on their own.

He puts the diary down, tosses his own bag on his bed and gets downstairs again. He sees Haruto and Yuma sitting and the living room and playing one of the board games, wonders if it would be okay to join them, but then remembers that being here doesn't change the fact that he's an adult and responsible for them, so he goes to the kitchen to prepare some food for them. He winces when he enters the kitchen and sees two white mugs and a spoon hurriedly placed on the kitchen table, sees how the smaller chair is tossed away to the side.

That day, Haruto was waiting for the hot chocolate Kaito was making, when they heard someone forcefully knock at the door. It felt weird, since there was never anyone who visited them so they looked at each other for a second, but before they thought of what to do, the door was opened and they heard steps. Kaito, who had no idea what to do, thought that they should maybe hide somewhere or run away to stay safe, but the intruders were already standing at the kitchen door by then. He hates remembering how they took Haruto away while he could do nothing but watch and has been furious when he found out that their father has been behind this.

Still, he tries to forget these things, telling himself that something like this won't happen to him now, he trained a lot to become strong enough to protect Haruto so there's absolutely no way for something like that to happen again. He almost drops the mugs he is putting away when he hears someone loudly knock at the door.

* * *

Ryoga gets out of the shower and hears the voices outside, but tries to ignore them as much as possible. He walks over to his bed to search for some clothes and notices the bag placed on the other bed in the room, Kaito's bag. The voices outside get louder. He shrugs and randomly pulls out the first pair of pants he finds. As he puts the loose black pants on, a person outside is shouting. It takes a lot of self-control to not walk to the window, to see what's happening and his hands are pretty much shaking by now. He takes a short breath and takes on a purple T-shirt, but when he hears another voice laugh he can't help himself but step to the window to see what's going on.

There's a helicopter outside, one of the Heartland helicopters only the police or other officials can use. A small, masked boy is standing in front of it, playing with a white Gameboy or DS or whatever, obviously not bothered at all by all the noise the helicopter and the shouting people are making. Many other people are standing around, wearing uniforms and helmets that make it impossible for Ryoga to figure out just who they are, but in the middle of them is a tall man with silver-blue hair wearing a long blue coat and Ryoga immediately recognizes him as V. Opposed to him, he sees Kaito standing in front of the house, pressing Haruto tightly to himself. He can't see Yuma anywhere, but he just heard his voice so he just assumes that Yuma's standing next to the door.

V and Kaito are arguing, Ryoga can't understand anything but the words _Haruto_ and _duel_, when suddenly the uniformed people start attacking Kaito with what seems like stun guns or something similar. They force Haruto away from Kaito and it seems like they are trying to kidnap Haruto but then Yuma runs into his sight, runs to Haruto and does something that seem like a really helpless and desperate attempt to save him - but it seems like he actually makes it. The person that held Haruto lets go of him and Kaito is screaming his name in relief

- when two others get hold of Yuma and take him to the helicopter.


	3. Chapter 3

_About ice queens and idiots_

* * *

When everyone is gone, Ryoga steps away from the window. His entire body is shaking and he wonders if drying his wet hair would help to warm him up again, although he knows that the sudden chill doesn't have anything to do with the temperature, but it's kind of cold, though, and he feels guilty somehow. There's a little cracking noise and Ryoga kind of knows he's not alone in his room any longer. It's not necessary for him to turn around to figure out who it is. He sighs, doesn't move and just waits, hoping he just imagined that sound, which isn't that unlikely, right? He hasn't slept enough these days, mostly because he was either too busy or too worried to allow himself some short break, so it's a bit natural to start imaging stuff –

"Won't you even look at me, Ryoga~?"

- but like it's usual to him these days, it's exactly the voice he assumed, the voice he never wants to hear again. He sighs again and sits on his bed, only to have the orange haired boy take a seat right besides him. He closes his eyes, waiting for the other boy to start talking and explain the reason for his unannounced visit or whatever he normally talks about, but he remains silent. After some time Ryoga opens his eyes again, glancing at the boy next to him.

"Vector. What do you want?"

The boy starts chuckling sweetly, smiling in a gentle and innocent way, disgusting Ryoga.

"My, my, Ryoga, calm down. I wonder what little Rio-chan would say, if she finds out how mean you are. I was around and just wanted to greet my dearest friend."

Vector keeps giggling. Ryoga clenches his fists, trying to control his anger but failing miserably. He hates Vector's little games, always fooling around so much, as if it's an easy entertainment for him to keep annoying other people.

"What does Yuma have to do with this? You said he'd stay safe, you promised!"

"That's nothing you need to worry about, honey. Just keep doing your job and I'm sure everything else will work out just fine."

He gets closer to Ryoga until their legs are touching and Ryoga tries to move away a little, but Vector just wraps his arm around Ryoga's shoulders, still smiling.

"We don't want cute little Rio to think that her big brother is a big, big liar, do we?"

His voice sounds nothing but gentle, like sugar, and Ryoga is almost about to vomit. His whole body is practically shaking and he bites his lips, definitely not answering Vector, because he already knows Vector would just laugh about anything he'd say. Vector doesn't seem to mind the silence and starts stroking his back carefully, while his other hand found its way a little higher to play with Ryoga's wet hair.

They stay like this for a short while, Vector quietly humming something, while Ryoga stands still, not daring to move a little or shove Vector away, until Vector has enough of it. He lets go of Ryoga and opens a portal. When he is about to step through it, he turns around again, smiling at Ryoga.

"You're such a nice little pet, Shark. I'm counting on further cooperation with you."

* * *

Yuma wakes up in the morning. Sunlight flows through the opened window, in the perfect angle to make it impossible for him to sleep a little longer. He stays in the bed anyway, wondering what time it is, hoping that he won't be late for school again, then realizes that there isn't any school today, so there's nothing wrong with laying around for a little longer, right? Well, okay, but maybe he could check if the others are already awake, so they could finally have breakfast together today. But when he opens his eyes, looks at the ceiling, he immediately sits up. This is not his bed room. Now, he also notices that he's wearing a weird white shirt and loose grey pants that are definitely not his own ones. He looks around. The bed he's sitting in seems to be the only piece of furniture in this room. It is a rather small room, with grey walls, only one tiny widow and a door – it feels like a prison cell.

He remembers being dragged into that helicopter by large hands, being pushed on a seat, but can't really recall anything else. He gets up, tries to open the door, tries to open the window, but everything is locked. He's stuck here and slowly starts to let the situation in. He's alone, can't get out, and even if he could he doesn't know where he is, he could be literally everywhere. Suddenly he wishes for at least Astral to be here as well, but when he reaches for the key, it's not there. Knowing he can't even summon Astral makes him feel even more exposed than before.

He starts to panic, runs to the window and tries to open it, but gives up because it's way too high to jump out, and just to settles on the door again. He knocks and screams, _someone, please, someone has to be out there, please get me out of here_, when the door suddenly opens and there's a girl. He feels like he already saw her some time before, but doesn't know who she is, but she has a plate in her hand and there's food and his gaze shifts from her face to the food and back. The girl smiles and suddenly everything Yuma can think about is the fact that he hasn't eaten something properly since lunch yesterday or something like that, well, maybe just hasn't eaten something since a long time. So, yeah, he still doesn't know where he is, doesn't even know what time it is, but he _knows _that he's hungry and he knows that you should always focus on the things that you know for sure first.

* * *

As soon as Ryoga's breathing calms down again and he feels okay enough to see the others, he gets downstairs. Haruto looks sad and sits on the couch and Kaito's next to him, holding his hand and quietly murmuring something, probably some reassurances. They both look up when Ryoga enters the room, trying to be as calm as possible. He looks at them and raises his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?"

It's a stupid question and he knows it, but he feels like it would be the right thing to ask, trying not to behave too obvious. Kaito gets up and he looks pretty tiered again; somehow he looks sorry. He gives Ryoga a short summary of what happened. Of cause, Ryoga already knows what happened, but he listens anyway. When Kaito's finished, Ryoga sees him bite his lips, like a kid that did something wrong and has to tell their parents about it, but leaves some important part out and then struggled to finally get it of their chest.

"I should have protected them better, it was dumb to let my guard down. I seriously didn't expect them to know where we were, since I made sure to not let anyone know where we wanted to go. I wonder how they found out. We should get home soon, I want to make sure they didn't heck out data or something even worse."

* * *

The food tastes delicious and he finds out that the girl is Ryoga's sister. She tells him that they are in a building in Heartland City and everything's going to be okay.

"Chris is actually a really nice person, so there's no need to worry."

Yuma finishes his meal, puts the plate down and laughs.

"I'm actually fine, now, and I don't think Michael's brother could be a bad person."

Both of them keep sitting on the floor of that room a little longer, Yuma finds out that it'll be his room for the following days, but Rio promises that he's not supposed to stay here much longer.

"Tron and Chris just need to find out something about you for their research, but they swore to let you go as soon as they've got their results. Now tell me how's Ryoga?"

Yuma blinks, should he tell her about Ryoga's strange behaviour lately; it'd just make her worry anyway and he's not even entirely sure about the whole thing; when he asked some friends at school if they thought Ryoga was behaving strange lately, they told him they don't think anything's wrong he might just imagine it. What if he's just overreacting about little things and everything's perfectly fine. So he just shrugs and tells her that her brother's okay, then tilts his head, asking why she never visits him.

She turns red almost immediately, murmuring something like _that's none of your business so shut up, okay_, and Yuma doesn't push on the matter any more, acting like it's not really important to him. She stays with him until about noon, when she finally stands up and tells him to follow her. They leave the room, walk through a rather long and empty hallway, until they reach an elevator. They get inside and Ryoga's sister presses a button. When the door opens again, they walk into a big fancy hall, full of beautiful and expensive looking furniture and decorated with many other expensive looking things, mostly stuff Yuma has never even seen before. He's still busy looking around, when Ryoga's sister grabs his arm and drags him out of door.

"Come on, we're meeting someone."

It's cold outside, not quiet the cold he's used to, when you want to huddle under a blanket as soon as you get home and drink hot chocolate, but a kind of cold when you just took a warm shower, get out of it and suddenly all the cold air around you hits you out of nowhere. Only it's even worse, the air is literally biting his uncovered hands and face and somehow each breeze gets through his clothing and feels like a punch. Now he regrets going outside without telling Ryoga's sister that he needed a jacket or something.

She doesn't seem to mind the cold, walking next to him, not even impressed by the temperature although her clothes don't seem much warmer . Yuma is almost sure that if they'd walk on any longer, he'd probably not make it to that meeting at all, but she just siles at him mockingly when she sees his gaze, and he's about to get angry at her for dragging him outside in this cold, for not even warning him at all, but before he gets the chance to say anything, she lifts her hand and points to one of the buildings around them and it looks like all the other ones to Yuma, but follows her inside anyway.

It's a restaurant and inside there are many small tables standing all around and people are eating in small groups or drinking something, and it's warm inside here and it smells great and for the second time today, Yuma realizes how hungry he is. Ryoga's sister motions him to a table next to the windows, where two people are already sitting. She sits on one of the empty chair and invites Yuma to sit on the other, which he does. The man and the boy already sitting there don't seem to care, the man with green hair and weird glasses is still reading the menu, while the boy with spiky orange hair smiled at him, seeming to be almost exploding from all his excitement.

"Hello, there, my name's Rei, Shingetsu Rei!"


	4. Chapter 4

When they get home, Ryoga's pretty grumpy and Haruto, who slept on the whole way home, is still tired and Kaito doesn't fell like talking, doesn't even think he'd be somehow able to cheer them up and there doesn't seem to be any point in trying anyway; so none of them talks and it's way too quiet. Kaito stays with Haruto until he falls asleep in his bed, then leaves, wanting to check on Ryoga, but he locked the door, and Kaito doesn't want to knock and wake him up if he's already sleeping and even if he is awake, Kaito doesn't actually have anything special to say to him and the thing would be kind of awkward Kaito realizes, so he goes to his own room, trying to get some rest himself.

He feels really tired, of cause after everything that happened it's only natural, but it's hard to fall asleep, because as he lies in his bed he has to think of Yuma, who sure must be scared and alone. Kaito should have saved him, could have saved him, if he'd just tried harder but it's too late now and that doesn't actually matter anymore.

And then there's Chris and Kaito just can't understand, why would Chris take Yuma, what is the reason for it, why capture Yuma, what's so special about the boy. He tries to calm down, but can't stop thinking and his head hurts and he's not even tired at all now, just feels kind of weird, not like he ever felt like before, just some kind of combination between sad, frustrated and – _useless_.

He feels the sudden urge to scream and sits up in his bed, looks at the time and then slowly lays down again. Breathing in and out and in and out and – he sits up again. He gets out of the bed and just stand there in the middle of the room, breathing, trying to convince himself, _it's not my fault, there was nothing to do, there was nothing _I _could have done_.

He closes his eyes, sighs and decides to take a walk, lying around in his bed and trying to sleep probably won't help, so he can at least go outside and look for some Numbers user.

The streets are full of people and the lights are bright and everyone looks happy, like they always do in Heartland City, it's a dream town, nothing bad ever happens here. Even if it does sometimes, no one needs to know, no one should ever talk about it, they just keep quiet, acting like they don't know what happens, like nothing ever happened at all. They just keep living on, smiles never leaving their faces, never complaining just to make sure the façade remains, that everybody at least seems to be happy. Keeping the façade up, to make it look like the paradise everyone thought it is.

It's awful how, just to keep up the reputation of a so-called paradise city, they toss all their hopes and dreams away. It might not sound logic at first, but it's a concept Kaito became used to in all these years. Ensuring the happiness of people has nothing to do with the people themselves, because it's just a simple matter of politics. If society_ likes_ something, the individuals are supposed to like it, too. If everyone does something and you don't, they call you crazy, not because you are wrong but because the majority is always right.

Kaito wraps his coat tighter around his body and steps into a smaller street, trying to avoid the bigger crowds. The difference is almost astonishing; it's darker and colder and calm. Only very few people are here, since naturally most people prefer to take the crowded roads, because they're brighter and safer and so on. But dark and cold and lonely is exactly what Kaito wants right now so he keeps walking, not caring to much about his surroundings.

"Didn't expect to meet you, of all the people I could have met, here."

The voice is so familiar and he looks around and sees the person leaning at the wall, smiling at him.

"What do you want?"

Chris takes a step forward, the smile fading from his lips. Just out of reflex, Kaito is about to take a step back, but he controls himself and doesn't move, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"Don't even think about coming any closer and start explaining yourself."

Chris raises an eyebrow and then starts chuckling.

"God, Kaito, you'll never change, will you?" He looks down at Kaito's body and frowns. "Although I hope you don't insist on fighting us with this kind of body of yours."

"Don't even try to tell me what to do, you're in no place to do so. Now tell me what you people are doing with Yuma."

Chris doesn't seem to listen and steps even closer to Kaito. He lets his hands rest on Kaito's shoulders. He's so close Kaito can feel the warm breath hitting his cold face and he remembers the last time they've been this close and it's really uncomfortable and he hates it and – is Chris blushing.

"Take care of your self, Kaito."

He pats his shoulders again and then turns around, leaving without answering any of Kaito's questions. His voice keeps echoing in his mind, though, even after he can't even see Chris anymore.

"_Let's make a deal, Kaito, let me take this cursed child and let you keep Haruto."_

* * *

Ryoga's sister doesn't say much while they're sitting there, just looks at the table and rarely raises her gaze to look out of the window sometimes, but maybe she's just too hungry to talk, maybe it's more lady-like to not talk before a meal or something like that. Yuma know that it's a thing that you always have to wait for a rather long time until you finally get your food in these fancy restaurants but that Shingetsu is a really nice person and they get along pretty well so waiting doesn't bother him that much. The green haired man obviously finished reading the menu but instead got a book out of his pocket and started reading, not paying much attention to any of them. When a waiter finally appears, Yuma already forget his arching stomach while chatting with Shingetsu but then it kind of hits him again and it growls, which would be kind of embarrassing at such places and Ryoga's sister shakes her head disapprovingly and the other man looks up from the book and looks at him, too, but then there's another growl and Yuma's pretty sure that it's not him again this time. He sees Shingetsu rubbing his head, muttering some excuses and they look at each other and then they laugh.

They order their food, but the green haired man doesn't order anything. After the waiter left, he stands up, puts his hand on Shingetsu's shoulder and smiles.

"Well, then, I'll be leaving your kids alone now, have some fun. Don't worry, I'll be paying everything, so enjoy your meal!"

He looks at Yuma, who's a bit confused, but smiles back anyway, and the man stretches out his hand and Yuma doesn't understand at first, but then shakes it and nods.

"I'm looking forward to get to know you better, Mr. Tsukumo."

"Eh, yeah, so do I, Mr... uhm..."

"Heartland."

Yuma nods again. Under the table, Ryoga's sister grabs his other hand, which is resting on his lap. He tilts his head and looks at her, but her gaze is still fixed on the window. Yuma doesn't really understand what she means, but she looks pretty uncomfortable. Heartland looks at them, raising his eyebrows, but then Ryoga's sister shakes her head and looks directly at Heartland – something, Yuma realizes now, she hasn't done the whole time since they got here – and mutters a short "everything's okay".

Heartland doesn't seem to be convinced by her answer but doesn't push it and smiles again, although it's different this time. He tilts his head, leans forward and puts a finger on her cheek. She turns her head away just a little, but he doesn't take his finger away and she doesn't do anything else about it, lowering her gaze again. Her hand stops pressing Yuma's and he squeezes it a little.

"Well, then, see you again in the evening, eh?"

She doesn't look up again, just nods slowly, her hand now clinging to Yuma's tightly again, as if she's afraid it could fall of anytime. Even after Heartland went to the waiter, paid him and then left, she doesn't let go of it. Only when Shingetsu starts talking again, _wow, that was kind weird_, and then smiles at Yuma, she immediately lets go of it, like it send a shock through her body. Yuma looks at her, asking _what is wrong with you_, but she doesn't respond, instead mumbles something about going to the toilet, stands up and hurries away to the bathrooms.

* * *

When Kaito gets home, he doesn't turn the lights on, shuts the door and leans on it, closes his eyes, breathes in, breathes out. It's quiet, the lack of noise should make it easier for him to clear his thoughts, but instead it's making it even harder. Chris' voice from then is still stuck in his head, a ghost that haunts him, then leaves him alone just to come back again, worse than before. His head hurts and he opens his eyes again, but they hurt, too, so he blinks once, twice, but it doesn't help at all. He closes them again and everything else hurts as well. The noises in his head won't stop, his muscles are aching and his chest feels kind of tight and – he feels pathetic.

There's a crack of another door opening and the light is turned on. He opens his eyes once again, although they still hurt, but everything else hurts, too, so the pain doesn't matter any more, and there's Ryoga, wearing his ridiculous pyjama with little sharks on it. His eyes are red and he looks like he's half asleep and he holds his mobile in his hand.

Kaito mostly doesn't take his mobile with him, because he rarely gets any calls and nobody but Chris has ever bothered to text him and even Chris has stopped after he left and so the only person that calls him is, well, no one, so he doesn't see a reason to carry it around everywhere, and, you know, people could always use it track him down and find out where he is and so on.

"Where were you, Kaito?"

Ryoga's lips are trembling a little and Kaito wonders how long Ryoga has been awake, searching and waiting for Kaito. He sure has to be shocked, realizing Kaito's gone without an explanation or anything else so shortly after losing Yuma and Kaito hasn't really thought about leaving a note or something, he usually just leaves and comes.

"I was just taking a walk."

He tries to smile at Ryoga and cheer him up, but it doesn't work and he feels like he's about to throw up and his head still hurts and his stomach arches and he's really tired again now and then –

– his vision gets blurry, everything fades away and it's black.


	5. Chapter 5

He's running, chasing something, something he can't even see or name, but he knows that something is missing and know that it has to be somewhere out there, something he desperately needs, so he runs and runs and the floor is way too hot, seems to be burning, and he isn't wearing any shoes, but still keeps running and running.

It hurts but he tries to ignore the pain, tries to keep running, and knows he must reach that something, knows it'll help him to make the pain fade away, isn't sure how exactly that would work and forgets that the thing he's trying to reach actually is the reason for all of his pain to begin with. Instead, he keeps using all of his energy to finally reach it. There's a faint light glowing in the distance and he runs faster, gets closer and closer and closer and he's almost there, only needs to get a little further and he's almost able to touch it, almost holds it in his hands.

"Kaito!"

_Beep. Beep. Beep. _

He's not running any more, laying in a bed. He sees the machines around him and sees Ryoga's confused, and maybe even a little worried, face.

"Idiot, what were you even doing to get into this mess?"

Kaito sighs.

"Nothing you've got to stick your nose into, dumbass."

Ryoga raises an eyebrow and frowns, putting a hand on his hip, a gesture he probably picked up from his sister.

"Yeah, of cause, maybe I should just stay and watch the house, if that's what you want me to do."

Kaito lays back again, muttering his _yeah, that's totally what you are supposed to do_, so now it's Ryoga's turn to sigh.

"You _do_ know that we're not married?"

"Not yet." He doesn't need to look at him to figure out that Ryoga's probably about to punch him.

"Well, if we are going to get married, you should start telling me some of your little secrets. For example what an Astral is."

Kaito sits up once again, looks into Ryoga's curious deep blue eyes, that are looking completely serious now. Kaito's not sure what to tell him, if he should tell him anything, he doesn't really know what Astrals are himself, only overheard his father briefly mention them once and then started researching about them. Where the hell has Ryoga heard about them?

"What do you know?"

"Not much, but they might know about Yuma. I think, he's mentioned something about them, that there's some kind of war going on."

"What do you mean, Yuma has something to do with them?"

"Answer my questions, first!"

Kaito takes a moment to consider his options. Should he really tell Ryoga about this? Knowing too much could get him into some dangerous situations, but then he already seems to know about them. Telling him some general facts now won't do too much harm, he decides.

"Well, from what I gathered, they are aliens with bodies consisting mostly of energy. They live in the Astral World –"

"Don't you say, I wouldn't have guessed that."

"– but thanks to some odd unknown reasons, war between them and the Barian World broke out."

Ryoga nods as he sits on Kaito's bed, as Kaito tells him what he knows about Astrals, that they've got bodies made of energy, unlike the Barians, which had bodies made of stones and rocks, how both worlds can't exist alongside each other, and that his father suspects that both worlds sent messengers to earth because it's the only way Barians and Astrals can communicate.

* * *

The next evening, Yuma's already completely accepted the situation he's in, and tries his best to handle everything as good as possible. He's talking to Ryoga's sister again, sitting on the floor of his room with her, when the door opens and there's Michael, Michael Arclight.

Suddenly all these feelings are coming up again, the usual happiness whenever he sees Michael's face, the sadness because he left him and now the relief of finally being able to see him again. He wants to speak up, to ask the older boy all these questions that have been on his mind, but Michel doesn't look at him, though, just looks at Ryoga's sister and his eyes have this serious look Yuma has never seen in them before.

"Vector wants to see you, Rio. He says it's something really urgent, you'll have to hurry."

A pained expression rushes over her face for a second and she slowly stands up. He doesn't notice it right away, but her hands are shaking a little and she looks pretty uncomfortable, pretty much like she did yesterday around Mr. Heartland.

"Why?"

She clenches her fists in a demanding way, obviously trying to look strong. Michael's expression softens almost immediately and he tries to smile, still not paying attention to Yuma.

"I don't know, he hasn't told me anything, but it's always better to just do what he wants, until it's over and done again. He'll always get what he wants anyway."

He holds out his hand and Rio sighs, quietly muttering some sarcastic remarks about _those stupid boys_, but walks over to him anyway and takes his hand. Then she turns around again and seems to force herself to smile at Yuma.

"I'll be back, soon."

They leave and close the door behind them, but after a short time it opens again. The orange haired boy smiles as he takes the seat next to Yuma. Soon both boys are chatting again, although there is a something burning on Yuma's tonge.

"Say, Shingetsu, I've been wondering, why are you living here with the Arclights? They aren't your relatives, are they?"

Shingetsu blushes and lowers his gaze quickly, avoiding to look at Yuma. He shyly mutters something Yuma can't really understand and then looks up again. His eyes seem to be wet and somehow Yuma starts feeling bad for asking so bluntly.

"I'm here, because my... my parents, they didn't seem to... they didn't seem to want me around. I used to live with my grandparents, but then... they grew tired of me, too, so they...so they kind of sent me to an uncle, but he was..."

Shingetsu's voice starts trembling and there's a tear rolling down his cheek. Yuma quickly grabs his hand, smiling at him.

"You know, you don't have to tell me the rest, if it makes you uncomfortable, 'kay." Shingetsu shakes his head, trying to smile back at Yuma.

"No, it's okay, Yuma-kun. My uncle was kind of... he wasn't exactly a good person, so in the end, the Arclights adopted me." He laughs, but it's a sad and dry laughter, that sounds more like he's about to cry.

"My family has always abandoned me, although I'm always doing everything with best intention, but I guess it's because I'm so clumsy and nothing ever works out as I planned."

He uses his sleeve to wipe away the small tears running down his face, when Yuma suddenly pulls him closer and wraps his arms around him.

"It's okay, Shingetsu, I'll be your friend to stay by your side forever!"

Shingetsu's eyes widen as he lets Yuma's words sink in, but then a huge smile appears on his face and he nods enthusiastically, wrapping his arms tightly around Yuma's body, tight enough, Yuma almost start to worry that he might suffocate, but doesn't say anything and smiles instead.

* * *

"Durbe! Where have you been?" She storms over to him, wrapping her arms around him. The blond next to him just snorts and she instantly breaks the hug. Durbe tries to act like he hasn't noticed how her cheeks reddened and smiles at her.

"Missed me?"

Rio folds her arms. "As if I'd ever miss a dumbass like you. It's just you need stop leaving for such a long time without telling me where you are. No one told me where you were. Even today, they said I was supposed to meet Vector, so..." She trails off, looking at her feet and now Durbe is the one pulling her into an embrace.

"Do we honestly look like Vector to you." Mizael mutters, but Durbe silences him with a single glare. He pulls back a little to look into her eyes, placing his hand onto her shoulders.

"There's nothing you need to worry about now. Everything will be alright, I promise. But I do need your help for something, if you're willing to work with us. It's nothing hard, really."

If little Rio really is the one he thought she is, nothing bad is going to happen, and Durbe would never do this if he's not sure about this. After years of research, he's pretty sure about it, she just has to be the one he suspected, he _needs_ her to be the one.

He and Mizael have kept visiting the two younger Arclights and Rio for some years, ever since Vector started 'taking care' of the family, or however he worded it, and Durbe sensed something in one of them, something terribly familiar. He wouldn't have investigated it any further, though, until Mizael mentioned that he felt something similar around the kids.

They started visiting more often since then. Vector grew suspicious, but that didn't matter to Durbe. If he has to be their leader, he'd naturally watch over everything. So he did little test with the kids.

One time, he gave them some reddish-pink candy that had little essences of Bariarite in them. While Thomas and Michael quickly spit them out, saying they were _burning on their tongues_, Rio ate them without complaining, even exclaimed how delicious they tasted. As far as he knew, only Barians could eat them without any problems, so in the end, Durbe is pretty sure that young Rio Kamishiro has to be at least somehow connected to their world.

Still, Durbe is worried that he maybe is keeping his hopes up a little too high.

"I swear, I won't ever let you alone again so just trust me a little, okay?"


End file.
